When I was and active mormon, I accumulated about a year's worth of dry staple foods. We had beans,rice, spaghetti, wheat, carrots, sugar, flour, and pudding.

At the time I thought it was a good idea. I had become convinced that a time would come when we would need to eat the food. Even when our local leaders said that during an emergency members of the stake could be asked to haul all their food to the stake center for the benefit of both members and non members alike, I thought that sounded ok, too. At least that is what I recall.

Now it all seems little weird.

I wonder why I was ok with it at the time. I found comfort knowing that we would be ok if everything around us collapsed.

Why did I not have confidence in my community, my state, and my country to pull together in bad times? I think that mormonism creates distrust between its devout members and those outside the group. I am convinced that the mormon church promotes the doctrine of self reliance as a hedge against acceptance of external belief.

This creates an us vs. them culture.

I think the huge stock piles of food in individual homes was a throwback to a time when the church isolated itself in the Utah territory. I do not have a reference for this speculation.

Also, hoarding gives its practitioners something to obsess about in a similar way to members who spend every day doing family history, pursue fanatic temple attendance, or get every merit badge for no practical purpose.

I think hoarding food is another great irony of mormonism. A practice ostensibly designed to help prepare people for the real world actually removes them away from it.

Looking back it was a cold war response. The Bomb could be dropped by the Russian commies at any time and with guys like Ezra Taft Benson high up in the church by then and into the John Birch society, next thing you knew people were building bomb shelters (Dad said our basement would do) and storing enough food for a year until the radioactive materials had subsided in the air and it was safe to go out again. We had two years supply of food but no one was focused on toilet paper then haha. Nowadays everyone knows what's really important, haha.

Instead America kept testing bombs in the dessert and got a lot of their own people that way with all types of cancer from the radiation, or at least that seems to be the case.


On a funny note, I asked my mother if she had enough to eat without leaving the house to go shop. She said she did and then mentioned all the flour in the bins in the basement fruit room.

I asked "Is that still good sixty years later?" And she said, "Well if it lasted three thousand years for the Egyptians then no doubt mine is good." I'm not even sure what she was referring to but didn't ask. Anybody know? Now I'm curious. I guess I forgot the Bible or she's crazy.

Thanks for the cold war referencece. That makes a lot of sense.

It seems like mormon leaders have reduced the emphasis on this in recent years. I wonder if current events will create a hoarding renaissance?

Hoarding renaissance, haha!

Why bother. Jesus is just around the corner. It's the end times. Really. Like for sure. You can count on it.

Besides the Mormon leaders are hoarding for and in behalf of their followers cuz they prefer slush funds in the bank over flour cans in the basement.

Done & Done Wrote:
----------------------------------------------
>
> I asked "Is that (wheat) good sixty years later?"
> And she said, "Well if it lasted three thousand
> years for the Egyptians then no doubt mine is
> good." I'm not even sure what she was referring
> to but didn't ask. Anybody know? Now I'm
> curious. I guess I forgot the Bible or she's
> crazy.

Wheat found in 3,000 year old pyramids was successfully germinated but I am not aware of anyone trying to make bread with it.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/02/2020 09:38PM by elderolddog.

Thanks. I think I knew that a long long time ago. Now my mother's comment makes sense.

Did she say wheat or flour?. It makes a big difference, although not after 60 years.

The 3000 year reference may refer to stories from the mid 1800s were it was ssid certain grain kernels found in Egyptian tombs that supposedly were planted then sprouted and grew into full plants.

The plants were then harvested and made into bread.

No evidence exists that this happened.

However in 2005 some then extinct Kudea DatePalm seeds from Masada were sucessfully revived. Bringing back the legend of the Egyptian wheat.

Heartless Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The 3000 year reference may refer to stories from
> the mid 1800s were it was ssid certain grain
> kernels found in Egyptian tombs that supposedly
> were planted then sprouted and grew into full
> plants.

I'm going glutTUTon free!

I thought it was (unprocessed) wheat that lasted from / by the Egyptians (with apologies to Steve Martin/King Tut).

It helped me have tp for my bunghole.

Is it stored in a way that it would be able to be good? How could that possibly be? Can someone tell me?

I can't even stand to store flour in the cabinet. I store it in the refrig. I can't stand the thought of weevil in my flour or pancake mix, etc. I understand weevil also gets in our spices that we leave in the cabinet.

I very much doubt her flour is okay.

My aunt, who has the best food storage I've ever seen, still is ordering food to be delivered, groceries, so obviously she must need certain things that aren't in her food storage.

Over the years we tried to use up what we could from our chow stash.

Remarkably, a lot of it worked, but some stuff took on a distinct metal taste from the #10 can.

I wonder what nutritional value remains?

Some stuff like peanut butter didn't last and just became foul.I guess you have to know what you are doing. We just bought whatever the ward was canning and stacked it up.

I’m still waiting for the stake to declare the Law of Consecration has returned...as though the stake president wants to give his stuff to riff-raff like me!

As for the food storage, we’ve got ours, but have to rely on utility companies for water, electricity, gas, and of course internet How, do I use whole-wheat kernels? I guess I soak them in tap water for long periods of time and then boil them using our electric stove with recipes found on the Internet. Got Pinterest?

The Law of Consecration is alive and well--just 21st Century style. How do you think they got $100 Billion?

So, when do we get OUR share? The Needy Boner

In the 60's we had a 2 year food supply, plywood sheets in the garage, and guns and ammunition.

As a kid back then, I used to envision my future as the end of the world, start of the millenium coming, us having our food supply, using the plywood to board up the house windows, and using the guns and ammo to kill the wicked people trying to take our food.....cause that's what my TBM dad said it was going to be like.

So what would you have done with the bodies?

Good question....TBD dad never mentioned that part. I always envisioned them rotting in the street in front of the house while we hunkered down inside.

A besieged soldier props up the dead to make it look like he has more people?

The more I think about it, mormonism is all about cultivating a seige mentality.

They have plenty of dead names to prop up.

And plenty of solders to do the propping.